Doctors talk about real patients who are the real victims of Stupak-Pitts.

[madfloridian]

Maybe it is a good thing this happened, this idiotic religion-based amendment that was pushed by the Catholic Bishops and allowed by our Democratic majority.

I remember pre-Roe times all too clearly. There was not only a deep shame to getting pregnant pre-marriage....there was no legal way to do anything about it. Oh, and there were not the effective means of birth control, either.

So pardon me if I wonder why women are so compliant as our party is willing to take away their rights.

From RH Reality Check:

The Real Victims of Stupak-Pitts

When I heard about the Stupak/Pitts amendment, I was in a room with 15 other doctors who shared my anger and disappointment. We had gathered for a board meeting for Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health, and we were horrified by the cruelty the amendment has in store for our patients. In examining rooms, we see women in terrible pain, but their suffering doesn’t count in Stupak/Pitts world. By banishing abortion from the reform bill, the amendment punishes women who need to end unwanted or unhealthy pregnancies.

We share the stories below and on our website to show what can happen to women physically, financially, and emotionally when they don’t have insurance coverage for abortion. As physicians, we try our best to help these women. As advocates, we will fight to protect their access to abortion.

The doctors present their stories, you need to read them all. Here is just one.

From Renee E. Mestad, MD:

My patient Sherry is 24, pregnant, and the mother of a 7-month-old son. Although her pregnancy was not planned, Sherry and her husband were initially excited to have a little brother or sister for their boy. Then Sherry’s early ultrasound showed she had twins. She and her husband spent several weeks eagerly anticipating the growth of their family.

But the next ultrasound showed that the twins are conjoined, or Siamese. The babies are joined at the head, sharing a brain, and chest, sharing a heart. They have two spines, four arms, and four legs. It would be impossible to separate them. If they survive after birth, it would only be for a few minutes. One heart can’t keep two bodies alive. The risk of stillbirth is also very high.
Now 19 weeks into her pregnancy, Sherry tells me she is depressed. She wakes up every morning wondering if today will be the day her babies will die inside her. How would she deliver them? She knows that she would probably need a cesarean section because their combined size might make them too large for the birth canal. Sherry then imagines carrying the twins for another four and a half months. She sees herself delivering stillborns or watching her babies die minutes after their birth.

Sherry must decide whether to continue her pregnancy. An abortion might give her and her husband some emotional relief. And if the twins are small enough, she might not need surgery to remove them.
But because Sherry’s insurance will not pay for her abortion, she has to worry about money on top of her other fears. She is on Medicaid, which will cover the twins’ delivery, alive or dead, but not an abortion—fetal abnormality isn’t enough to get around the Hyde amendment. Although the abortion would be less expensive in a clinic, Sherry would have to go to a hospital since she could need surgery. She would be responsible for the entire bill of at least $10,000 to cover the operating room, anesthesia, medication, and other fees. This expense would destroy her family’s financial well-being.

Sherry can carry her babies to term who cannot and will not live, or she can have an abortion and possibly bankrupt her family.

Men in suits plus a few women joining them...are making life changing decisions for women under the direction of religious groups. They only consider the death of a woman before they will "permit" the procedure.

The mental or physical health of a woman does not matter.

I watched cheery smiley Amy Klobuchar on Rachel's show tonight for about a minute or so. She avoided the tough issues that need to be dealt with. I notice that no men are speaking out on this issue, not even ones who were strongly pro-choice when they were active party leaders.

It is as though we as women are expected to take one for the team and be careful not to gripe too much.